Museum of Montserrat - EN

The album of Montserrat engravings by Colonel Jean-Charles Langlois (1830)

Jean-Charles Langlois (Beaumont-en-Auge, Calvados, 1789 – Paris, 1870). At the age of 20, he was conscripted into Napoleon's army and took part in the battles of Wagram (1809) and Waterloo (1815). After the war, he studied painting in the studio of Horace Vernet. In 1819 he was remilitarized and sent to Spain by King Louis XVIII to consolidate the absolutism of Ferdinand VII. On this occasion, Langlois visited Catalonia and, based on the notes and field studies he made, published Voyage pittoresque et militaire en Espagne, Catalogne, accompagné de notes explicatives sur les batailles communiquées par MM le Maréchal Gouvion Saint-Cyr et les généraux Decaen, Lamarque, etc., Paris, 1826-1830, which includes 40 plates and two folios of text. In connection with this album, the piece we now present was published as an offprint, bearing the following publisher information: Vues du Couvent et des Hermitages du Mont Serrat en Espagne, Paris, Ardit, London, Engelmann, 1830, consisting of 12 lithographic plates measuring 43.5 x 30 cm. Each plate is blind-stamped with the mark of the E. Ardit printing shop in Paris.

This series is important to us because it represents the most faithful and highest quality graphic record of the ruined Montserrat following the Peninsular War, offering a romantic view of the ruins—mortally wounded, yet striving to resist the ravages of time. It should be noted, however, that there are anachronisms and that the compositions include fanciful alterations. But what truly made Langlois famous and established him as a master in Art History were his extraordinary panoramas of Napoleonic battles, in some of which he had personally participated. These panoramas, several of which are key holdings in military museums, were decisive in shaping the Napoleonic legend during the 19th century.